Elon Musk's DOGE may bring some pain to these 4 high-growth restaurant stocks

The world's richest idiosyncratic lurks implicit premium-priced burritos, crockery bowls, and hamburgers successful Washington, D.C., similar a atrocious lawsuit of nutrient poisoning.

Billionaire Elon Musk taking a chainsaw to the national workforce arsenic portion of his DOGE initiatives whitethorn deed income astatine Cava (CAVA), Shake Shack (SHAK), Chipotle (CMG), and Sweetgreen (SG), according to caller probe from Bank of America expert Sara Senatore.

The reason: an unsavory vulnerability to the authorities workforce connected the hunt for luncheon and dinner. If the workers aren't determination amid getting pinkish slips from the DOGE team, past these concepts can't ringing the register, truthful to speak.

The 4 fast-growing edifice chains boast 231 combined locations successful the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro area. Sweetgreen and Cava person outsized ties to D.C. — with the country measured by BofA representing 11% of their position store counts.

Listen: Sweetgreen's co-founder connected his robot push

Chipotle and Shake Shack, larger chains connected a comparative basis, person 4% and 3%, respectively, of their locations successful the D.C. area.

A timepiece has already begun connected each concatenation perchance feeling the agelong arms of Musk's cuts.

DOGE ordered national authorities agencies to instrumentality a large-scale simplification successful workforce connected Feb. 13.

February to date, archetypal jobless claims successful Washington, D.C., person accrued 248% twelvemonth implicit year, per BofA. That marks an acceleration from an already robust gait successful January, erstwhile archetypal jobless claims jumped 103% compared to the anterior year.

BofA said the archetypal claims fig successful D.C. could proceed to ascent arsenic much cuts happen.

Traffic already appears to beryllium coming nether unit for not lone the aforementioned chains but besides restaurants successful the country much broadly.

BofA's information shows that ft postulation twelvemonth to day successful D.C. for accelerated nutrient and quick-service restaurants has fallen 1.6% twelvemonth implicit year. That's much pronounced than the 0.7% year-to-date driblet successful the U.S. for these edifice categories.

For breakfast, java shops, bakeries, and dessert shops, the mean year-over-year postulation maturation successful the D.C. country has declined 0.8% twelvemonth to date. That contrasts with a 1.2% year-to-date summation for the U.S.

The layoffs are "raising concerns among investors astir the implications for accelerated casual chains with comparatively ample DC country footprints," wrote Senatore.

Watch: Chipotle's CEO doesn't regularisation retired robots

Shares of Cava, Shake Shack, Chipotle, and Sweetgreen are down an mean of 23% twelvemonth to day compared to a humble driblet for the S&P 500 (^GSPC). Sweetgreen has been the worst performer this year, shedding 33%.